Thank you, Mr President, Mr Executive Vice-President of the European Commission,

As the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has said, “the Recovery Fund is historic decision”.

The Recovery Fund is a wall of joint protection and solidarity for Member States in need of restarting their economies, and a lifeline for national budgets overburdened by the effects of the pandemic.

We must now move from theory to practice.

And the catalytic factor to move from recession to growth, is time. We must accelerate the disbursement of funds on the ground, to avoid scores of business closures and further unemployment.

Greece has already submitted its own National Plan for the Recovery Fund to the European Commission and it has received rave reviews.

It serves no one’s interests if individual Member States delay this process.

For its’ part, the Commission must not become entrenched in bureaucratic complexities and create obstacles.

The driving force of economic growth is the “psychology of the market” and in order to turn things around we need a generous and timely injection of liquidity.

Executive Vice-President Dombrovskis, we are at a critical juncture.

We are gradually exiting the pandemic crisis, but we risk being confronted with a financial “dead end” the morning after, if we do not move decisively and quickly.

Speed in disbursing financial support from the Recovery Fund is the key to achieving the goals for which it was designed.

Thank you.